When you establish a POV for a chapter or scene. STICK WITH IT. Don't jump from close 3rd person to universal narrator unless you have a very, good reason.
Point of view is a promise. The moment a reader settles into one character's head, they stop watching the story and start living it alongside that person, trusting that every detail on the page is something this character could plausibly see, feel, or guess. Break that contract mid-scene and the spell snaps; the reader is suddenly outside again, aware of the author's hand. Say you're in Maria's close third as she enters a party. Stick to what she notices, misreads, feels anxious about. Don't suddenly tell us what the host is secretly thinking across the room. The caution: rigid devotion can strangle useful flexibility. Some stories genuinely need shifting POV between chapters, or a wiser narrator peeking over a character's shoulder. The rule isn't "never shift." It's "never shift without knowing exactly why."
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